Faith
It requires all of Faith's self-control not to cry out when she hears the tell-tale sound of Buffy's body hitting the wall and crashing to the ground. B is not moving. She's still alive at least. I am going to kill this fucking witch if it's the last thing I do!
Willow is shuffling around above her, muttering incoherently to herself. "Just two more days." She hears the witch say clearly. "Two more days, and I can have what I want."
Faith continues to lay as still as possible, hearing that she has two days to figure this out, calms her slightly. As soon as Willow leaves the cell, she gets moving. Quickly she crawls her way to the access to the third level and out into the tunnels. It took her a while to navigate the tunnels, but finally, she found herself in the open air. Taking a few moments to gather herself before she ran as fast as she could towards Angel's mansion. She knew there was surveillance of the area, but there wasn't anything she could do to avoid it.
She rushed past the confused guards calling for Giles. "Two days, she said she was going to trade Buffy for Tara in two days." Gasping for breath as she explained what little she had learned. "Your stinky little pouches don't work for shit by the way."
"If they didn't work, you'd be dead by now. It masks what you're thinking. It's not complete magic protection." Giles responds tersely as if she should have somehow known this.
"That would have been good to know before." Faith is furious and waving her hands around as she paces in front of Giles, wishing she had something she could fight.
"Did she say what was going to happen in two days?"
"Just that she was going to trade her for Tara. I found this in a room on the third level." She retrieves a few scrolls from her pocket and hands them to Giles.
He unfolds them and examines the contents. "Well, this isn't good." He mumbles to himself and turns to grab a book off the shelf.
"What is it? What is she going to do?"
"This is a resurrection spell, which only works if the person was killed by magical means. Which Tara was not." Giles frowns and rubs his forehead. "Did you happen to see an urn? Looks like this." He points to an image in the book he retrieved.
"No, I didn't see anything like that."
"It must be somewhere down there. If you see it, you must destroy it immediately." He begins reading the book in his hands again and purses his lips. Faith is filled with rage, and her patience is running out. "I can't imagine what she's planning to do. Maybe someone promised to return Tara to her in trade for Buffy."
"B said that Tara was down there already. If she's already alive, why does there need to be a trade?"
"I fear we just don't have enough information." Giles frowns and starts examining his book again.
"Can't we bust in there with the army you have? We have to get B out now! I don't know what exactly this trade is going to be, but it can't be good. You know how to break in there, so what you are you waiting for!?"
"We can't just attack them. Those soldiers are all under Willow's influence. They are innocent in this."
Faith is pacing, when she remembers something. "B said she thought Willow was using some medallions to control them. She took one off of the head guy, and he was normal. Maybe we can capture some and get them on our side?"
"If you wait until she starts the ceremony, you'll have your best chance." The First suggests as it appears next to Faith. "Her control over the soldiers will be weakest then."
"We can't wait! What if she does something to B?" Faith is so upset that she's not even aware enough to wonder why she's so worried about Buffy being hurt.
"Willow won't hurt Buffy. She needs her for the ceremony."
"How do you know all this?" Faith glares at the First, who is of course in the guise of Buffy. She doesn't let it show how much it irritates her.
"I know all kinds of things." The First winks and Faith rolls her eyes in frustration.
She turns her attention back to Giles, "So how about it? We can grab some soldiers now and get rid of their mind control. Then we can bust in there and stop the ceremony." Faith is brimming with energy. They have a plan of action, and she is ready to start now.
"It's a good idea, Faith. We just need to wait a little while longer, so Willow doesn't figure out what we're up to."
"I don't think we should. She already knows that I got out of there, she could do something to block us from being able to get back in."
"If you're right about the medallions, we should be able to walk in the front door."
"What if I'm wrong?"
Buffy
OK, that sucked. Buffy's head is throbbing, and her whole body ached. She reached out with her senses and frowned when she couldn't feel Faith anywhere nearby. She could still feel Spike, but that didn't do her much good. It was a slight relief to her that maybe Faith got out, that she was safe from Willow.
The door to her cell slides open. She freezes, afraid Willow has returned to finish her off. She relaxes when she sees the blonde standing nervously in the opening. "Tara?"
Tara stays in the entrance to the cell, staring curiously at Buffy. Buffy takes a step towards her, but Tara raises her hand and shakes her head. "I can't let you out."
Buffy clenches her teeth, wondering if she could make it through the door before Tara could close it. Deciding that she couldn't, she tried to focus on getting Tara on her side. "Do you know what she's planning on doing?"
"She told me." Tara's hands are clutched in front of her, and she was visibly nervous and upset.
"And you're ok with it?"
Tara looks down at her feet. "I... want to be alive."
"I can't blame you for that. I'm sorry for what happened to you, but it's not right for Willow to kill me so that you can live!" Maybe if I can get her to understand, she'll stop Willow. "You must realize all the terrible things she's doing? Controlling these soldiers? Controlling you!"
"I shouldn't have come. I have to go." Tara backs away, the door sliding shut before Buffy can reach the opening. She pounds on where the now closed door was and is rewarded with a jolt of electricity which sends her flying. I really hate this place. She stays on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Nothing makes sense, her family and friends are gone. The world is in chaos, and there's nothing she can do about it. She's never felt so hopeless and afraid in all her life.
Willow
Today is the day! Willow has brought all the materials she needs for the spell to the secret chamber she set up on the third level. Tara and Buffy are restrained on medical beds, both currently unconscious. Willow moves between them, first painting symbols on Tara and then on Buffy using blood she obtained from one of the soldiers. There were no animals left to kill, so she had to improvise. It wasn't hard. He gave himself willingly to her, sort of.
She could hear an explosion on the floor above her. She ignored it. They can't possibly find me in here, no matter how much of the initiative they blow up. This room wasn't part of any floor plans and was only accessible through a tunnel which she had magically hidden. Even if they could guess where she was, there'd be no way to get to her before the spell was complete.
"Willow, please don't do this. You don't have to do this!" Buffy cries out. Willow grins as she watches the helpless slayer thrash pointlessly against her bindings.
"You're not supposed to be awake." Willow hovered over the restrained form of her once best friend. Grinning down at her, "and you're wrong, I absolutely have to do this."
"You were my best friend. How could you do this to me?"
"Was I? I think we remember things pretty differently. Plus, isn't Faith your best friend now? Didn't you abandon me so you could be with her?"
"That's not at all what happened!"
"Wasn't it? You were pulling away from me, spending all your time with her and ignoring me!"
"She was alone. I was just trying to be her friend. I never meant to make you feel abandoned."
"Right, you just wanted to be her friend all right. Her naked friend." Willow leers down at Buffy. Her voice filled with venom.
"Not then, I didn't know what I wanted then. I never meant to hurt you." Buffy closes her eyes, tears trailing down her cheeks into her hair.
"Awww… don't cry. Poor slayer, the weight of the world on her shoulders." Willow cooed and ran her fingers through Buffy's hair with mock sympathy. Buffy grimaced and attempted to recoil from the touch. She couldn't move enough to escape the contact. Willow grinned at the completely powerless slayer before her. The slayer who had made her feel so inferior, so worthless. You were never better than me. Now I have power you could never imagine.
Another explosion rocked the room, much closer than the last one. Buffy's eyes widened as she tried to move her head to look for where her rescuers might enter.
"Don't get your hopes up, no one will find us in here. Not before I can finish the ritual."
Willow moved away from Buffy and sat between the two beds. She placed an urn on the ground in the center of a circle she had drawn in blood. Dipping two fingers into the urn, she coated her fingers in blood and began painting her face and started chanting, calling out to Osiris.
"Willow." Tara's voice softly called. Willow stopped her chanting and quickly stood and moved to her side. Holding her hand and smiling down at her.
"Tara? It's almost over. Save your energy."
"You can't do this. You have to stop." Tara's voice is weak, and she can barely keep her eyes open.
"How can you say that? I need you!"
"You have to let me go. If you do this, I'll never forgive you." Willow backs away from Tara, fury building inside of her.
"No, please, you don't understand. I need you! Osiris will give you back to me! I have to do this!"
Tara frowns and turns away from Willow, her eyes full of tears and her face masked in a grimace that breaks Willow's heart.
"You did this!" She focuses on the blonde slayer. "You turned her against me!" Buffy is screaming as Willow pulses her with dark energy. There's nothing Buffy can do to try and defend herself. Another explosion, this one in the adjacent room. Willow turns her attention to the tunnel and scowls.
I don't care what she says, once I bring her back, she'll understand, she'll love me again. Even if she doesn't, I'll make her! Willow is far too gone to see the depths she had fallen to.
Buffy
Faith is so close, I can feel her. I just need to stall Willow, keep her talking.
"I didn't do anything to Tara. You know she wouldn't want this." Buffy wished she had spent more time with Tara and learned more about her. The few interactions they had, led Buffy to believe that the witch would never be willing to dabble in death magic. They had briefly discussed their respective mothers' deaths. Buffy hadn't even come close to dealing with the death of her mother. Talking to Tara had given her a small amount of relief.
"You don't know anything about her!" Willow spat back, and Buffy did her best not to cringe.
"You've been controlling her, haven't you? Not letting her think about anything that might get her to question what it is you're doing down here? How did you turn into this monster?"
"Monster! How dare you!" Willow blasts Buffy once again with the dark magic. Maybe taunting the crazed witch is not the best idea. Buffy thinks once the pain subsides enough for her to form a thought.
"You claim to love her, but how can you do this to someone you love?" Buffy searches her friends face, looking for any sign that she was getting through to her, but there was no sign at all. If anything, Willow's fury and power seemed to be increasing.
"I have to bring her back! She mine, and I need her." Willow pouts in a very childish way. Buffy oddly sees signs of her best friend in that expression. She quickly shakes any thoughts of the creature in front of her as being her friend and tries to keep Willow distracted as long as possible.
"Do you even hear yourself? You're insane." It's not the most creative response, but it does manage to keep Willow's anger focused - preventing her from completing the ritual.